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Kauai trip # 3- final days and recap AND video of MONK seal
Kauai trip # 3- final days and recap AND video of MONK seal
5-23-08
This was the day of our sail/snorkel/sunset boat trip in the afternoon. However, we had to go down to Tunnels for early snorkeling. What a gorgeous day! Took more pictures.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sea-nile/2523209290/" title="Kauai 229 by jtmmrut, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2034/252 ... 09324f.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Kauai 229"></a>
We had to drive about 2 hours to the South end of Kauai to a port to leave on our charter.
We used Kauai Sea Tours and went on a 5-
SEE THE REST IN A POST BELOW.
IT ACCIDENTALLY GOT ERASED. I COULDN'T INSERT ALL OF THE PICTURES AGAIN, BUT IF YOU CLICK ON THE FLICKR LINK AT THE END, YOU CAN SEE ALL OF THE PHOTOS.
This was the day of our sail/snorkel/sunset boat trip in the afternoon. However, we had to go down to Tunnels for early snorkeling. What a gorgeous day! Took more pictures.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sea-nile/2523209290/" title="Kauai 229 by jtmmrut, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2034/252 ... 09324f.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Kauai 229"></a>
We had to drive about 2 hours to the South end of Kauai to a port to leave on our charter.
We used Kauai Sea Tours and went on a 5-
SEE THE REST IN A POST BELOW.
IT ACCIDENTALLY GOT ERASED. I COULDN'T INSERT ALL OF THE PICTURES AGAIN, BUT IF YOU CLICK ON THE FLICKR LINK AT THE END, YOU CAN SEE ALL OF THE PHOTOS.
Last edited by sea-nile on Thu May 29, 2008 4:44 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Having done both I agree with you. The flight to the Hawaiian Islands is long. St. John is only a few hours away. They are both great and each has their own appeal. The helicopter tour in Kauai was amazing. I had a lump in my throat the whole time beacuse they played "Over The Rainbow" by Iz:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A2Jt4WOxN8
I'm glad you had a good trip!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A2Jt4WOxN8
I'm glad you had a good trip!
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Kathyzhere
- Posts: 527
- Joined: Thu Dec 27, 2007 5:04 pm
- Location: Cape Cod & SW FL
Okay so when is a good time of year to visit, now that I must put Hawaii closer to the top of my list??!!!
All your photos so far are amazing and the 3rd one above is so ruggedly beautiful.
All of you past Kauai visitors are sooo lucky!!
So when IS a good time to visit?
Well now that airfare is going up, up and up it may take a while to afford it.
Thanks for sharing Sea-nile.
Kathy
All your photos so far are amazing and the 3rd one above is so ruggedly beautiful.
All of you past Kauai visitors are sooo lucky!!
So when IS a good time to visit?
Well now that airfare is going up, up and up it may take a while to afford it.
Thanks for sharing Sea-nile.
Kathy
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Teddy Salad
- Posts: 205
- Joined: Thu Mar 08, 2007 7:05 am
- Location: Colorado
Thanks for the great TR, sea-nile.
Kathyzhere, check out this thread. We had a discussion about the different times of year on Kauai. Hope this answers your question about when to go there.
http://virgin-islands-on-line.com/forum ... sc&start=0
Kathyzhere, check out this thread. We had a discussion about the different times of year on Kauai. Hope this answers your question about when to go there.
http://virgin-islands-on-line.com/forum ... sc&start=0
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turtlegirl
- Posts: 154
- Joined: Sat Mar 01, 2008 8:54 pm
- Location: Massachusetts
So happy to answer this! I am a St. John newbie (my first trip will be in January), but a Hawaii veteran. 10 trips so far! Spring and Fall are best times to visit Hawaii. Low rainfall and low crowds. Fall brings warmer ocean water. We like May and end of September. Kauai and the Big Island are our favorites.
Last edited by turtlegirl on Thu May 29, 2008 11:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Teresa_Rae
- Posts: 2053
- Joined: Mon Oct 09, 2006 5:44 pm
- Location: Downstate IL
I don't know! That is really weird. It was all there before and I did not edit it again.Teresa_Rae wrote:What happened to the rest of your trip report?
The last I can see is:
We had to drive about 2 hours to the South end of Kauai to a port to leave on our charter.
We used Kauai Sea Tours and went on a 5-
That was a lot of work too, what a bummer!
Here is the rest of it. I will try to post the picture link so you can look at the pictures that are supposed to go along with the script.
I PM'd Anthony so maybe he knows what happened.
I will see if I can get the Monk Seal video attached again too. What a bummer!
5-23-08
This was the day of our sail/snorkel/sunset boat trip in the afternoon. However, we had to go down to Tunnels for early snorkeling. What a gorgeous day! Took more pictures.
We had to drive about 2 hours to the South end of Kauai to a port to leave on our charter.
We used Kauai Sea Tours and went on a 5-½ hour cruise up the West and to the North of Kauai and saw whole Napali coast. Words cannot describe the beauty and the pictures can’t capture just how breathtaking it is. It started out foggy, but ended up clearing when we hit the best part. The peaks go up 4,000 feet. Our captain was great as she described the history and facts of this coast. The snorkeling was OK. There weren’t a lot of fish and the reef was deep.
When we started to cruise again we saw a flying fish! It was so awesome.
Along the coast we saw a monk seal and a baby, some turtles and some goats. We saw people hiking along the coast and camping and that gave us a better perspective of just how big the mountains are here. We passed a very large cruise ship. We passed by caves and waterfalls. Fabulous!
On the way home we had rain and a rainbow. The sunset was OK.
What a wonderful day and a great way to end this vacation.
5-24-08
Departure day. We got up early and had one last walk down Tunnels beach. We snapped a few pictures. I had grown really fond of this place, but I didn’t cry and I wasn’t as sad as I am when I leave STJ. I missed my kids.
Went back and packed up. Why is it so hard to fit everything on the way home? I was worried that the suitcase would be over 50# so I gave Jim a few things to put in his.
We still had time after packing so Jim says, lets go back down to the beach and take another last walk. OK!
We stopped by the Hanalei pier again to see if it was clearer today and it was so we took a few pictures.
Do you know that the song “Puff the magic dragon” written by Peter, Paul and Mary was inspired by these mountains in Hanalei? They may have been smoking something and saw a dragon in the mountains. LOL
Then on to the airport in Lihue. My bag weighed EXACTLY 50 pounds! Then to Honolulu and then on to Chicago. A toddler cried 7 of the 8 hours on the plane. The long plane ride was OK, but the jet lag was hard to take. We lost one night of sleep.
What a great vacation! I still like STJ better, though.
I couldn’t help but compare it to STJ.
Snorkeling: STJ wins! STJ has more coral and in most cases more fish, just different types. The water is warmer in STJ.
Diving: Since I have only dived in STJ and at Tunnels beach, I guess I really can’t compare. They were both good for different reasons. STJ had more coral and fish and Tunnels on Kauai was cool because of the tunnels and caves and the mountainous scenery.
Food: Food isn’t my biggest priority on vacation. The luau had good food, but I would say that STJ wins this too. There seems to be more seafood on the menu in STJ and that is what I like.
Shopping: I am not much of a shopper, but I think STJ wins here too. I am sure that there are great stores in Kauai, we just didn’t seek them out.
Hiking: Kauai has beautiful scenery on the hikes so I guess it wins. But you had better be in good shape.
Scenery on land: Kauai wins due to the larger mountains and the Napali Coast
Friendliness: STJ, hands down.
Beaches: STJ wins for the water and sand for sure. I love white powdery sand. There are a lot of rocks and grainy course sand in Kauai and it is hard to walk down the beach like I said before.
Flight: Duh, STJ 5 hours, Hawaii 8 hours. Although it wasn’t bad, they did not lose our luggage and everything was on time.
So STJ wins and I feel that I have to back to STJ and if I don’t make it back to Kauai it wouldn’t be the end of the world. Of course I would go back if I could if there is time and finances for it. But it won’t be a yearly trip.
I recommend it though to anyone who can go there and I would say go in the summer and stay on the North shore. You also must take a boat tour of the Napali coast. I hear the helicopter rides are really great too, but we did not do that.
Here is the link to more pictures if you have the time. Almost 200 pictures but I started with 900, so I did pretty well!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sea-nile/s ... 252468638/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sea-nile/2531823183/
I PM'd Anthony so maybe he knows what happened.
I will see if I can get the Monk Seal video attached again too. What a bummer!
5-23-08
This was the day of our sail/snorkel/sunset boat trip in the afternoon. However, we had to go down to Tunnels for early snorkeling. What a gorgeous day! Took more pictures.
We had to drive about 2 hours to the South end of Kauai to a port to leave on our charter.
We used Kauai Sea Tours and went on a 5-½ hour cruise up the West and to the North of Kauai and saw whole Napali coast. Words cannot describe the beauty and the pictures can’t capture just how breathtaking it is. It started out foggy, but ended up clearing when we hit the best part. The peaks go up 4,000 feet. Our captain was great as she described the history and facts of this coast. The snorkeling was OK. There weren’t a lot of fish and the reef was deep.
When we started to cruise again we saw a flying fish! It was so awesome.
Along the coast we saw a monk seal and a baby, some turtles and some goats. We saw people hiking along the coast and camping and that gave us a better perspective of just how big the mountains are here. We passed a very large cruise ship. We passed by caves and waterfalls. Fabulous!
On the way home we had rain and a rainbow. The sunset was OK.
What a wonderful day and a great way to end this vacation.
5-24-08
Departure day. We got up early and had one last walk down Tunnels beach. We snapped a few pictures. I had grown really fond of this place, but I didn’t cry and I wasn’t as sad as I am when I leave STJ. I missed my kids.
Went back and packed up. Why is it so hard to fit everything on the way home? I was worried that the suitcase would be over 50# so I gave Jim a few things to put in his.
We still had time after packing so Jim says, lets go back down to the beach and take another last walk. OK!
We stopped by the Hanalei pier again to see if it was clearer today and it was so we took a few pictures.
Do you know that the song “Puff the magic dragon” written by Peter, Paul and Mary was inspired by these mountains in Hanalei? They may have been smoking something and saw a dragon in the mountains. LOL
Then on to the airport in Lihue. My bag weighed EXACTLY 50 pounds! Then to Honolulu and then on to Chicago. A toddler cried 7 of the 8 hours on the plane. The long plane ride was OK, but the jet lag was hard to take. We lost one night of sleep.
What a great vacation! I still like STJ better, though.
I couldn’t help but compare it to STJ.
Snorkeling: STJ wins! STJ has more coral and in most cases more fish, just different types. The water is warmer in STJ.
Diving: Since I have only dived in STJ and at Tunnels beach, I guess I really can’t compare. They were both good for different reasons. STJ had more coral and fish and Tunnels on Kauai was cool because of the tunnels and caves and the mountainous scenery.
Food: Food isn’t my biggest priority on vacation. The luau had good food, but I would say that STJ wins this too. There seems to be more seafood on the menu in STJ and that is what I like.
Shopping: I am not much of a shopper, but I think STJ wins here too. I am sure that there are great stores in Kauai, we just didn’t seek them out.
Hiking: Kauai has beautiful scenery on the hikes so I guess it wins. But you had better be in good shape.
Scenery on land: Kauai wins due to the larger mountains and the Napali Coast
Friendliness: STJ, hands down.
Beaches: STJ wins for the water and sand for sure. I love white powdery sand. There are a lot of rocks and grainy course sand in Kauai and it is hard to walk down the beach like I said before.
Flight: Duh, STJ 5 hours, Hawaii 8 hours. Although it wasn’t bad, they did not lose our luggage and everything was on time.
So STJ wins and I feel that I have to back to STJ and if I don’t make it back to Kauai it wouldn’t be the end of the world. Of course I would go back if I could if there is time and finances for it. But it won’t be a yearly trip.
I recommend it though to anyone who can go there and I would say go in the summer and stay on the North shore. You also must take a boat tour of the Napali coast. I hear the helicopter rides are really great too, but we did not do that.
Here is the link to more pictures if you have the time. Almost 200 pictures but I started with 900, so I did pretty well!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sea-nile/s ... 252468638/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sea-nile/2531823183/
Last edited by sea-nile on Thu May 29, 2008 6:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Kentuckygirl
- Posts: 1903
- Joined: Sun Oct 08, 2006 10:17 am
- Location: Kentucky
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I have been to Kauai 3 times now, & I totally agree that St. John is soo much better for soo many reasons.....tho I do like Kauai alot!
It seems to rain alot on Kauai also!
I am going again next Christmas. Only reason I've gone this many times is my Father brings me!! I will say that if I had to pay, I would NOT go back!!
(I am the travel guide & driver)
But he wants to return one more time "before he croaks" as he says it. Then we have to bring his ashes back & drop him in all his favorite places in Hawaii.
Looks like you had a great time tho, did you manage to eat any "Puka Dogs" while there?
It seems to rain alot on Kauai also!
I am going again next Christmas. Only reason I've gone this many times is my Father brings me!! I will say that if I had to pay, I would NOT go back!!
(I am the travel guide & driver)
But he wants to return one more time "before he croaks" as he says it. Then we have to bring his ashes back & drop him in all his favorite places in Hawaii.
Looks like you had a great time tho, did you manage to eat any "Puka Dogs" while there?
